Concert Reviews

Here is my own concert review and more below mine!

The Best Night of My Life, Which I Will Never Forget!

Well, last night was the Backstreet Boys concert! It was by far the best night of my whole summer! It was Monday, August 17th, and the concert was in Calgary, Alberta, Canada! I had been waiting for this night to come ever since April, counting down the days until August 17, and the anticipation and excitement kept me going. The show was spectacular, and it was surely worth the long wait. Here is my story of the concert, and my opinions and special things that happened. We left at about 12:30pm. after we had picked up my friends. There were 8 of us going to the concert, but in two separate cars. In our car there was me, (Arden) my best friend Jamie Kristianson, Kristin Murray, Jessica Bold, and Tricia Persson. My mom took the day off of work to drive all of us up there. We were meeting our three other friends there at our seats. They were Meagan Wesley, Nicole Buchanan, and Kerri Kostineck. We arrived in Calgary at about 1:00pm., and Jessica said that her mom had heard that Aaron Carter was doing an autograph signing at an HMV, so we stopped at a mall, and made a couple of calls, and unfortunately he wasn’t doing a signing. We then went on to another mall, (Market Mall) and we went shopping for about 2 hours. We went into “Le Chateau”, and stayed in there for awhile because they were playing the BSB CD. We went into a shoe store also, and the BSB came on. The song was “We’ve Got It Goin’ On”, and Jamie yelled out, ”Yeah the Backstreet Boys!”, and the clerk in the store asked if we were going to the concert. Of course we all answered, “Yes!” in excitement! We then went to the food court and ate our lunch. At about 3:30pm. we left the mall and made our way over to the Saddledome where the concert was taking place. My mom dropped us off, and told us to have a lot of fun. We quickly ran to the front of the Saddledome to check out what was going on. The concert didn’t start until 7:30pm., but we wanted to be there early, and so did many other people. The Radio station was there and so was the news crew. Kristin, Jamie and I ran over to the news crew and tried to get on TV, but I think they might have just got a quick shot of us. They had a big tent in front of the Saddledome and Kristin and I went over to check it out. They had all of the BSB souvenirs you could buy. We quickly ran back to our group of friends with smiles on our faces telling them that souvenirs were on sale. We all rushed down there, and soon we were drained with no money left. Jamie and I were the big spenders of the group, but that is probably because we are obsessed with them. We bought so many things, and everything was so nice. We each got a BSB red sweater ($70), postcard set ($15), tour book ($20), the “Everybody Backstreet’s Back” book($25), a key chain($10), dog tag($15), a group poster($15), and I got a Brian poster($15). We then went and sat down again and waited for the doors to open. We saw many people who had made signs, and I had made one also. On one side it said,” Brian- Will you please wave to me? I love you!”, and on the other side it said, “B-Rok- Every Time I Close My Eyes- I Wanna Be With You- Nobody But You!” Those are all titles to their songs. Some other signs that were there said, “I’ll Go Anywhere For You Backstreet”, “I Love You Kevin”, “Nick you are sooo SEXY!”, “Nick and Brian take it off”, and my personal favorite, “B-Rok My Body!” I thought that sign was awesome! Well, as we were waiting outside, I looked up and saw people walking into the Saddledome. I said to my friends in excitement, “They’re letting people in!” We made a mad dash for the doors, and were first in line for one if the ticket lines. It was about 6:00pm. at that time. We waited for about 45 minutes, and at about 6:45, they finally opened the doors. We got our ticket stubs ripped off, and then we ran in. A security guard stopped Jamie, Kristin, and I and asked us if she could check our back packs. We started to undo them, and she just asked us if we had any pop cans, cameras, or food, and we said no, and went on. We all had brought our cameras, but like we would’ve told her we had them! These girls handed us these BSB brochures, and if you sent in 2 Canadian dollars you could get free concert photos from the concert that you went to. I sent mine in, and I am now waiting for the photos! We walked through the Saddledome, and asked someone where we get to the floor seats. He pointed straight ahead, and so we made our way to our seats. We were the 25th row on the floor, right in the center. We got our hands stamped, and made our way across the floor to our seats. When we got there, we couldn’t believe how good our seats were, and how close the 25th row really is. We were jealous of the people in the front, and wished we were them. I went up and saw my friend Renee, and we talked for awhile. I saw other people I knew also, since everyone likes the Backstreet Boys. I went back down to our seats, and Meagan, Kerri, and Nicole had arrived. I was getting so excited. The concert was supposed to start at 7:30pm., but it began at about 7:45pm. There were these young girls in front of us, and Jamie and I were wondering what the “S/D” stamp meant on our hands. I said maybe “Seated down” as a joke, and the little girl in front of me said Saddledome. I started up a conversation with her and asked who her favorite BSB was. She said Nick, and a little girl beside her said Nick also, and then the girl beside her said A.J. I told them I liked Brian the most, and the little girls older sister turned around and said she liked Brian the most also, and we talked about him for like 2 minutes. Then we got ready for the concert!!!! We thought Jimmy Ray, S.O.A.P., and Aaron Carter were going to open for the BSB, but only Aaron Carter did. We weren’t disappointed. We were looking around, and I spotted the sax and trumpet player from the BSB’s band. I kept on asking someone to come with me to see him, because I had a Donald Duck beanie baby and a little squishy basketball for Brian that I wanted him to give to Brian. Kristin agreed to come with me, and we walked over to him, and Kristin got an autograph. I said to him, “Could you give-” and he cut me off and just went, “NO”, in my face. I was like, “Well fine. Thanks a lot buddy.” He could’ve at least let me finish my sentence!! Oh well. We went back to our seats, and sat down to wait for it to start. We had brought balloons, and we blew a couple up and got the crowd to toss them around. We wrote on one, and we put, “Jamie, Tricia, and Arden say HI! If you get this, throw it up front and on stage!” It got up to the stage, and it almost got on like 3 or 4 times, but the security guards kept on catching it and throwing it back to the crowd! After about 15 minutes, the DJ from the radio came on-stage and asked if we were ready to see the Backstreet Boys, and the crowd went wild! He said the concert would start in a few minutes. Aaron Carter came out at about 8 o’clock. A black man introduced him, and from the side of the stage before AC came out, someone walked out, and it was AJ!!! Everyone started screaming! He was like, “Are you all ready to party?!” Everyone went wild! Then he said, “Well give it up for my little bro, Aaron Carter!!!!” Then A.J. left, and the lights went down and this music came on. From the side of the stage, Aaron, and his two dancers Keith and Darryl ran through this paper sign that said Backstreet Boys, and each of the BSB’s name was on it. He opened with “Crush On You”, and he told us he was Nick Carter’s little brother, and everyone screamed! The next and final song he performed was his newest single, “Shake It”, and during this, AC and his dancers taught us how to Shake It!! It was awesome! Before we knew it, Aaron was done and the lights were back on. He only performed 2 songs, and we were surprised he didn’t sing anymore. We waited another half an hour, and at 9 o’clock, the lights went down again, and everyone started screaming so loud! The Saddledome was filled with glow sticks and signs waving around like mad. They played introduction music, and then all of a sudden 5 big fireworks went off on the stage, and kept putting out sparks. Each one of the Backstreet Boys was behind a firework, and as soon as the fireworks stopped, and you could see them, the arena was filled with screaming. They opened with, “That’s the Way I Like It”. Everyone on the floor was standing up and jumping. They had 2 monster big screens up top so you could see the concert from there, and there was a man with a camera taping it so it could get onto the big screens. Every once in awhile, one of the BSB’s would look straight into the camera and smile or wave. After that song was done, they just talked to us and told us that they used to sing old songs that were by other groups, and then they introduced a song. I am not quite sure what song it was, but they all sang a verse, and it was a capella, and it was an old song by another group that they like. After they were done singing that song a capella, all of them went off stage, except for A.J. He said to the crowd, “Now I want you all to know, that there is one very special women in my life right now!” Everyone in the crowd went, “AWWW!!”, in disappointment thinking it was a girlfriend or something. Jamie was sitting beside me yelling at me, “It is his mom! I know it! His mom!” A.J. then told us that it was his mom, and that it was her birthday, and that he wanted to get her up on stage. He went to one side and then to the other, and he was like, “Is she running away from me?!” Finally he found her, and his mom, Denise, and all of the other BSB’s came on-stage, and Brian was holding a birthday cake. A.J. got everyone in the audience to sing Happy Birthday, and then Brian put his finger in the icing of the cake, and Denise licked the icing off of his finger! Then Brian went for some more, and licked some more icing for him! It was funny. After that, they all left the stage, and about 3 minutes later Howie came on stage with a whole bunch of red and white roses, and it was time for them to do their solos. Each member came on and introduced themselves when it was time for their solos, and they said a few words about the fans and stuff. Howie sang a song I don’t know the name of, and as he was singing he threw roses to the girls in the crowd, and each of them had a message attached to them. Probably about 15 lucky girls walked away with roses. Howie, known as Sweet D definitely has a nice build, and he is known to show off at the concerts, and near the end of the song, he took his shirt off and everyone went wild. Howie actually did look pretty good, because he had a goatee and a mustache, and that looked awesome. After Howie was done his solo, next was A.J. He walked out on stage, and Jamie beside me just went nuts! A.J. is her favorite, and she was like, “That’s A.J.!!” He sang the song, “Lay Down Beside Me”, and it was AWESOME! He came out in his red shirt and a long white coat over it, and he looked awesome. He would walk over to the sides of the stage and sing to the crowd, and everyone went wild. Next in line was Kevin, and his was wicked! Kevin sang the song, “Nobody But You”, and I loved his act! He told us that we had a record breaking attendance at the Saddledome that night, and that was awesome! Before the concert started, they put 500 more tickets on sale, high up in the Saddledome. Right when Kevin came on stage, he ran out and just danced for about 3 minutes. It was awesome! Kevin hardly never sings solo, and you hardly ever get to see what he can really do, and he danced so wicked! The song he sang was awesome also. He has an awesome singing voice. Next was... Brian, and I went NUTS!! Every single 2 seconds I would be yelling at the top of my lungs, “I LOVE YOU BRIAN!”, or I would just have my hand out reaching for him and I would just be screaming out his name. He sang the song he wrote on their second album, “That’s What She Said”, one of my favorite songs. He played the guitar, and he told us we had to sing along, and help him. He would sing the verses, and then we would all sing the chorus, and he would sing along, but sometimes it would just be us singing. I loved his solo the most, partially because that is one of my favorite songs, and Brian is my favorite BSB!! After Brian sang his solo, Nick came out and sang “Heaven In Your Eyes”. He put a lot of emotion into it, and sang really well. He would bring the mike and the stand down and sing into it and lean over and stuff. He did really well. After Nick was done, all of the other BSB’s came on-stage, and Nick said, “Okay, enough of this slow stuff!” Everyone went nuts as they broke into “Hey Mr. DJ”, a track from their new album. The highlight of that song was when they all sang, “C’mon and work your body, WORK YOUR BODY!”, and as they sang that, they put their hands together and brought them down sharply and pumped their arms up and down! It was awesome! Streamers and confetti were falling down from the ceiling at one point, and A.J. just yelled out, “It’s snowing!” in a really funny voice! It was funny! The next song they did was their newest single in the US, “I’ll Never Break Your Heart”. They all brought out stools, and sat on them and sang the song. We lit sparklers, and waved them from side to side during the song. Mine lasted the whole time, and Kristin’s got taken away from a security guard. Some other girls had sparklers also. I went nuts when Brian hit the high note in the middle of the song. Every single time I hear him hit that note when ever he sings it, I go nuts, so at the concert I just started screaming my head off! I would just yell out his name and scream! When the last verse of the song came, they told us we had to sing it, and so we did. We broke up the first time, and it sounded really bad, so Kevin was like, “Well, that was pretty good, but you kinda broke up there at the end! Should we try it again?!” Everyone cheered. Brian then went, “Okay, one more time!” We tried it again, and it was awesome! After that awesome performance they sang the ballad, “Anywhere For You”, a duet by Nick and Brian. The screams all started when Brian and Nick hit the high notes at the beginning of the song and during the song. The part of that song that stuck out in my mind was when they put the camera on Brian’s face and he was smiling and sang, ”I’d go anywhere for you”, and as he was singing that he pointed into the camera, and it looked like he was pointing straight at you. I was singing along and pointed back to him! Things were getting thrown up on-stage, like stuffed animals, and a Butterfinger chocolate bar for Nick. I wanted to go and throw what I had for Brian up on stage, but I never did! Next time! Brian got a mini basketball anyway that someone threw on stage! Oh well. The next song they sang was my favorite Backstreet Boys song, “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)”. As they started the song, I went nuts. I knew what was going to happen, and I was so excited! The band started to play the intro. for the song, and it sounded really bad. Howie stopped them and he was like,” Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are you doing? That was all wrong! It sounded horrible! Try it again!” The band tried it again, and it sounded as bad, and even worse. Howie spoke again. “What are you doing? I mean, we are in Canada! We gotta put on a good show!” Then the drummer from the band goes,” Hey, if we are doing such a bad job, why don’t you come up here and play the instruments yourselves?” All of the BSB’s looked at each other and nodded, and they all walked up to an instrument. Nick was on drums, Kevin was on the keyboard, A.J. and Howie were playing guitars, and Brian was playing the bongos! They all started, and it was awesome! They all sounded so good! We all sang along, and loved how they acted the beginning part out. They quit playing the instruments about two thirds of their way through the song, and then the band continued, and all of the BSB just went to the front of the stage and sang. It was AWESOME! The next song they played was a song called, “Darlin’”, a track from their first album. This was now crowd participation time! Brian split the crowd in two, and Nick and Howie’s side would sing “Darlin’”, and then A.J. and Kevin’s side would sing, “Tell me what to do to make things right”. We were right in the middle, so we pretty much sang both parts. It was awesome how it sounded. The whole stadium seemed to be singing, and it sounded awesome how it echoed! The next song they sang was a b-side track called, “Let’s Have A Party”. This one got the crowd going wild! A.J. started out by yelling,” All the ladies in the house say AAAHHHH!! All the ladies in the house say AAAHHHH!!!” Everyone screamed, and it was awesome. Then there is a part in the song where A.J. goes,” Well if you don’t know-” and every time he performs it they say something different like, “Grow a fro”, or “Well you should’ve known”, or “Now you know”, and this time when A.J. said that A.J. thought Nick was going to say it, and Nick thought A.J. was going to say it, so they never said anything! They just shrugged their shoulders and went, “Aww!” It was so cute! Then a part in the middle which was awesome was when Kevin would chant,” Well there ain’t no party like a backstreet party ‘cuz a backstreet party don’t stop! There ain’t no party like a ALBERTA party ‘cuz Alberta knows how to party!!” The dancing to this song was awesome also. It was one of the best songs they performed I thought. The next song they performed was, “All I Have To Give”. Before this song, they quickly went off stage and then came back in the hats they wore in the “All I Have To Give”, music video. They all looked so sexy in their hats, and everyone was singing along. It was an awesome performance. The next song they performed was the last song they performed before their encore. It was, “As Long As You Love Me”, and it was awesome! We sang our hearts out along with them, and they did the dance that they do in their video on stage. Everyone went wild! Near the end of that song they said thank you and that they hoped we had a good time, and then they turned around, and went and each one of them got a chair from the back of the stage, and they did their famous chair routine! It was AWESOME!!! They walked off stage, and then they came back on wearing the new Calgary Flames jerseys! Each of them had their name on it and the number, “98”. They sang two of their biggest hits next. They came out with, “Get Down (You’re the One For Me”, and they had these goggles on their eyes, and they looked so hot! When A.J. was going down for his rap in the song, right before he started, Kevin came up behind him and took his glasses from his forehead and put them over his eyes, and then they started moving all funky! It was awesome! They incorporated the song, “We’ve Got It Goin’ On”, into the end of ,“Get Down”. This song was performed awesome, and since it was their very first single, we knew the dance routine and everything. The best part was when near the end of the song, they sing a verse and they all get down on their knees and put their hands together like they are praying, and the whole audience was doing it! It looked wicked! After that, they left the stage for about 5 minutes, and this big screen came down in the middle of the stage. Their video for, “Everybody Backstreet’s Back” was playing on the big screens, and then when it came time for them to sing, 5 coffins appeared on-stage. They rotated around, and you could see each one of the BSB inside! Then they all came out in their ballroom costumes from the video and performed the song! Everyone was jumping up and down, and screaming! It was the last song so we were all getting majorly into it, but we had been into it the whole concert any way! They did the famous dance to that song, and when it was finished, all of these fireworks went off in the middle of the stage. BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!!!! It was wicked! Then the BSB were gone. The concert was over, and it was the best night of my entire life! We started to talk when the lights came back on, and we sounded like smurfs. The screaming was so loud in there. Jamie had been snapping pictures with my camera the entire time, so we probably have some awesome pictures. There were so many glow sticks and lighters in the stadium waving around, and it looked so awesome! As soon as I saw Brian come out on stage at the beginning, I started to cry! Call it obsession! I was crying off and on throughout the whole concert, and Tricia and Kristin kept on asking me if I was okay. I was so happy, and overwhelmed. I mean, they were right there. For real! It was awesome to see Jamie get so excited over A.J.! I mean, we are going to marry them. We love them so much. When the concert was over, we went out the doors and left. Right when we left, I started to cry. I was so sad that it was over! The little girls that were sitting in front of us that we were talking to before the concert waved good-bye to us and left. They were so nice. One of them was looking at me throughout the whole concert, and she saw me crying and screaming Brian’s name, and she said to me during the concert, “I hope you get to meet Brian someday!” I was like, “Aw! Thank you!!!” She was so sweet! We left the Saddledome and went to Peter’s where Tricia’s uncle was meeting her to drive her home. We got a slurpee, said good-bye to Tricia, and drove home. We listened to Backstreet Boys all the way home, and we sang and talked. Kristin slept, and we were all tired. We dropped everyone off, and soon we were all at home, dreaming of meeting them or seeing them again. The concert was the BEST CONCERT I HAVE EVER BEEN TO, and I recommend that if you can go, if you have a chance to, GO!!!!! The next day (today) my best friend Jamie called me. It turns out that the other 3 girls who went home in the separate car, (Meagan, Nicole and Kerri) saw the tour bus leave the Saddledome, and it was right behind them on the highway, and A.J. had his window down, and he waved to them in their car! Then they went and looked in the front of the tour bus and saw all of them! I couldn’t believe it, and I am so jealous! All of that excitement in one night. It was awesome, and by far the best night of my 1998 year!! I can’t wait until NEXT YEAR!!!! BACKSTREET’S BACK.....ALL RIGHT!!!!! I LOVE YOU BRIAN LITTRELL!

Tanea Tylette Reed's concert review- September 4, 1998 Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Ok since I'm from Virginia and I didn't know where I was going in the first place, I left extra early. So I left at around 8:30am and arrived at the Pavilion at around 11am. I was getting all these butterflies in my stomach. Well I thought since maybe it was the day of the concert they might have some extra pavilion seats left otherwise, I would be sittin' on the lawn along with 10,000 other folks. So they don't have anymore pavilion seats left so there's no use in me leaving, because I can't check into my hotel until 3pm anyways, so I just stayed along with a couple other people at the gate. It was about 5 of us standin' at the gate from 12pm until 3pm waitin' for an autograph. Needless, to say that didn't happen, which I'm still kinda ticked off at, but anyways. We were still there waitin', and the people that worked there were being so mean to us, and we weren't even doing anything. Then around 4:30p, this tall guy comes and asks if 10 girls would help pass out theses little free photo pamphlets. So I said, yeah because it sure beats sittin' by the gate for 2 more hours. So we got to go into the VIP entrance and get into the pavilion early. While we were waitin' we met this guy that works for the BackStreet Boys and we talked to him for a little while and he was really nice! Then we handed out the things for what seemed to be forever, we almost missed Aaron Carter. So after that, we finally found some pretty good lawn seats, and saw Aaron Carter perform. He is such a lil' cutie( He was the only opening act, which was fine with me since I was ready to see the boys perform anyway. Then about 20 minutes later. The lights went out, and the Dj starts playin' "Mo Money, Mo Problems" and "Hypnotize" by Notorious B.I.G. so I was groovin' to the beat. Then he stops, and the band starts playin', the lights come on and the guys pop up on stage from these trap doors and start singin' "That's the Way I Like It"! Then they did this song called "If I Ever Fall In Love Again" acapella by Shai. It was so good!It was so phat. After that the start dancin to this mix of "All About the Benjamins", "Don't Wanna Be a Player", "Money, Power, Respect", "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See", and "Too Close". I should mention that these are among my favorite songs so I was going crazy on the lawn. I would've jumped on stage and started dancin' with them if it hadn't been for the 95 bodyguards, police, and security( Then they went off stage for a costume change then each one came out for their little solo. They are very talented. Then They played "Quit Playin' Games With My Heart". Kevin played keyboards, Brian on bongos, Howie D. and A.J. on guitars, and lil' Nicky Carter on drums. They can really play too. They sang a couple more songs. Had costume changes. Sang a couple more songs. Then the finale came. The played the video "Everybody" on the large screens, then this grim reaper thing came out and five other grim reapers came out with red eyes rolling five coffins on stage. When they turned the coffins around the boys came out singin'. And that was it! They concert was really great though, even though I didn't get to meet them like I was hoping, but there's always a next time!

E-mail: Treed@dgs.state.va.us

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